I was glad to see Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan calling for cuts in Social Security benefits yesterday. I think that any time that Republicans are forced to talk about cutting Social Security during an election year is a good thing.
It is, of course, an outrage that the Republicans now want to pay for their tax cuts for the rich by taking benefits away from the elderly. Normally they would not be willing to talk about it in the open, especially right before an election. But now Greenspan has kicked the issue out into the open and has thereby done a great favor for the rest of us.
Social Security is currently collected out of the first $87,000 of every person's salary. That means that the vast majority of us who earn less than $87,000 per year have 100 percent of our income taxed for the purposes of Social Security. Meanwhile, folks like Alan Greenspan, George W. Bush and Ken Lay who make considerably more than $87,000 per year have only a fraction of their incomes going toward Social Security. So how is it fair that they should use the Social Security surplus to cover for Bush's fiscal irresponsibility?
